The present invention is to provide an improved heat transfer in the apparatus described in my Argentine Pat. Nos. 195,525 of Oct. 15, 1973 and 206,846 of Aug. 23, 1976 and the system as further disclosed in an article published by me in 1974 for the handling of water (both cooling and cooled) in the cooling towers. Heat exchangers with internal turbulators are known in the art, see for example Mosier U.S. Pat. No. 3,734,135, re-issued U.S. Pat. No. Re. 20,016, French Pat. No. 3,776,018 and Westbrook U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,711. However, these are concerned with rigidly mounted, usually straight, tubes and none of them are in the shape of coils mounted so as to permit expansion and contraction of the surfaces of the coils for self cleaning purposes. It is a major feature and objective of the present invention to provide improved cooling coils structure and assembly for cooling towers as disclosed in my above-identified Argentinian patents.
Cooling towers and related equipment generally have an electric or hydraulic motor for driving the fan for impelling air through the cooling tower for enhancing the evaporative cooling process, the fan or blower serving to activate the air flow in open circuit cooling towers, closed circuit cooling towers, evaporative condensors and evaporative oil coolers and the like. In these as well as other related applications water or fluid to be cooled and or used as a cooling media are generally sprayed via nozzles in the cooling tower. The purpose of the nozzle is to increase the surface area and corresponding evaporation rate when exposed to the air. Energy to spray the water from the nozzle is generally provided by the water supply pressure and corresponding distribution pump. A fan is then used to move air through the heat exchanger which air conveys away the heat released by the evaporative cooling process taking place. The fan is generally driven by an electric or hydraulic drive and the motor is direct coupled pulled by a belt connector that has speed reduction via gear drives or any such mechanical transmission which are standard in the art. In summary, in a normal evaporative process there is always a requirement for the flow of water or cooling media accompanied by a corresponding flow of air. Energy is therefore required to pump the water through the spray nozzles and energy is generally provided as well in order to drive the fan which moves the air. In this connection, in the past, turbine fan drives for cooling towers utilizing impulse turbines for driving the air fan or blower are known in the art as exemplified in Mart et at U.S. Pat. No. 2,672,328, Mayo Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 3,141,909, Talbot U.S. Pat. No. 3,253,819 and Murphy U.S. Pat. No. 3,669,421. However, in this art, such turbine drives have not been widely adopted. There are applications where it is desirable to control the final temperature of the outgoing cooled fluid and keep this fluid within certain temperature limits. One of the common methods employed is to throttle the speed of the fan, modifying the air flow and consequently the evaporation rate.
According to the present invention, an impulse blade turbine mounted on a common shaft with a fan and as a result of which the water to be cooled is used as a prime mover to move the turbine and drive the fan. By adjusting and/or regulating the amount of water impinging upon the turbine blade, a sympathetic vibration can be developed in the movement of the coils which results in an easier cleaning action of the coils disclosed in my above-identified Argentinian patents and the turbulated coils disclosed herein. As a result of the easier and better cleaning action, there is a more efficient heat transfer through the tower.